Monthly Archives: March 2016
Song Sparrow in Spring
Song Sparrow, Timber Point, Rachel Carson NWR, Goose Rocks, Maine
As I mentioned yesterday, the Song Sparrows are back all along the coast here in Southern Maine. They are often our earliest summer singer to arrive. This bird is out at the tip of Timber Point, a relatively new property of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge located between Goose Rocks and Biddeford Pool, just where the Little River flows into Goosefair Bay. It sat up and sang for me nicely.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 125 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
First Phoebe of Spring
Eastern Phoebe, Kennebunk Bridle Trail, Kennebunk ME
The first Eastern Phoebes have returned to the marsh and trees around the Bridle Trail near the mouth of the Mousam River where it crosses Route 9 here in Kennebunk. Along with the Song Sparrows (also present for at least a week) they are our earliest returning songbirds every year. I don’t count the Robins, since they are really here year-round, or any of our other backyard feeder birds, which I can see any month of the year. The Song Sparrows and Phoebes will nest along the Bridle Trail, and I will be seeing them all summer. I love the background of this shot…the bokeh as they call it. The wind was gusting to 30 mph yesterday and the winter grasses of the marsh were being tossed…they were just far enough behind the bird to create this warm wash of color. You can see the effects of the warm light reflected up from the marsh grasses on the body of the bird as well. There is often a light yellow wash on the lower breast of the Phoebe, but you rarely see it this yellow.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Breeding Brandt’s
Brandt’s Cormorant in breeding plumage and posture, La Jolla Cliffs, California
This morning we pop back to San Diego and the San Diego Birding Festival to pick up this breeding plumage and posture Brandt’s Cormorant from the cliffs at Scripps Park in La Jolla California. We watched two birds trying to build nests on the same small ledge for 20 minutes or so…repeatedly stealing the meager nesting materials from each other, and spending more time defending than gathering. Eventually one flew off, undoubtedly in search of more nesting materials, and the remaining bird promptly stole all of the absent birds stuff. There is a joke in there, about California maybe, but I will restrain myself.
The birds were close enough to the cliff top so that I only needed 800mm of equivalent reach for this close-up. Nikon P900. 1/320th @ ISO 400 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
Ice!
thin ice shell over buds, Kennebunk Maine
We had a day of freezing rain late last week. Every elevated surface was coated with a thin shell of ice. Fortunately the ground and roads were warm enough so that ice did not form underfoot and under tire. I went out to the grocery and was caught by a tangle of brush across the road, bordering the drive and parking lot of a bank. There were some birches in the classic “bent down by ice” posture, and lots of ice-bound buds along the branches in the tangle.
In-camera HDR. Sony HX90V at 24mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom.
He is risen! Happy Easter Sunday.
floating ice skim on one of the ponds along Rt. 9 in Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
Happy Easter! I am not sure why this is my Easter image this year. I admit it is abstract, and visually challenging (what is it?). But it is also full of life…full of mystery…full of grace and wonder. It is also highly unlikely. It is a super thin patch of floating ice on a pond along Route 9 in Kennebunk Maine. It was above 40 and had been for several hours when I found it, and this pond has been open for weeks, so I was not expecting ice at all. And the sweeping feather like patterns are more like rime ice on a car window than anything I have seen on the surface of water. And then there are the straight lines, the pattern of triangles among the feathers, like the leading in a stained glass window. And it is so thin, so fragile, so unlikely. Altogether strange and wonderful. It challenges my understanding of what is physically possible.
Then you add the colors of the reflected sky and clouds and trees and it really comes alive. It becomes not just an image of floating ice, but a image in its own right, containing a beauty of its own. Looking at it is almost meditative…it puts my mind into a state of open wonder and receptivity…and something very like peace. Something very like hope. Something very like joy. And so, after all, it is not so strange a choice for Easter Sunday!
What is more unlikely than the resurrection? More challenging to our sense of what is possible? More full of grace and wonder? What greater source of hope and joy?
He is risen. Against all odds. Against every expectation. He is risen and with him hope and joy. And though 2000 years of Christian history have not always given testimony to his truth, yet his truth lives on, and is there to be received by every generous eye. Unlikely as rime ice on open water. Unlikely as perfect triangles in floating ice. And more beautiful than the reflected colors of sky and cloud and trees. Jesus is risen! He lives. He lives in me.
Happy Easter!
Wrong beach mate!
Sea Lion and Harbor Seal Pups
Wrong beach mate! This lone Sea Lion pup wandered among the Harbor Seals at Children’s Pool Beach in La Joya California. At this age the Harbor Seal pup at his feet is in no danger, but in fact Sea Lions are major predators of seals. Which is of course what makes this such an odd sight. Odder is the fact that the mother seals on the beach paid the Sea Lion pup no attention at all. I guess that also knew it was no threat at this age, but I would have expected a stronger response just on general principles. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 1/500th @ ISO 110 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom.
Seal pup…
Harbor Seal pup, Children’s Pool Beach, La Joya CA
Dropping back a few weeks to my time in San Diego for the San Diego Birding Festival, here is collage of three shots of the same Harbor Seal pup from Children’s Pool Beach in La Joya California. The pup is probably a few days old, and was enjoying the beach.
Nikon P900 at 1500mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom. Assembled in Phototastic.
Honduran Green Heron
Green Heron, Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge, Honduras
So, is a Green Heron in Honduras more exotic, more tropical, than a Green Heron in Maine? The Green Heron is my favorite North American Heron, so, of course, I am delighted to find it anywhere. This bird, standing on a floating log along the edge of the main channel at Cuero y Salado National Wildlife Refuge on the Caribbean coast of Honduras is certainly all a Green Heron can be. I saw several in Honduras, looking and acting just like the ones I had seen a week earlier in Florida, or a month later in San Diego. Always a treat…and always exotic and tropical as far as I am concerned!
Nikon P900 at 1100mm equivalent field of view (before cropping). 1/500th @ ISO 200 @ f5.6. Processed and cropped for composition in Lightroom. It was taken from a moving boat on the river, so framing was not perfect 🙂
Titmouse in the Snow
Tufted Titmouse. The yard, Kennebunk Maine
The Titmice came back to our feeders about a week ago, after a late winter absence. This Tufted Titmouse shot was taken on the second day of spring 🙂 and is a celebration of our spring nor’easter. I think he looks very stoic there on his branch. Every few moments he would fly across to the feeders and take a seed, then return to this same branch to digest.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped for composition in Lightroom.
Ballerina wantabe.
Canada Goose, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area
If there were a prize for the heaviest bodied bird…the Canada Goose might well be in the running. The size of the body is emphasized in this shot of a goose standing on one leg, ballerina like, in Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area. I like the pose, and I like the way the light is reflected back from the water on the body of the bird.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.